Elijah

Oversimplified

• The fiery prophet who confronted Israel's idolatry, called down fire on Carmel, and was taken up to heaven in a whirlwind of fire.
• With Enoch, one who did not die; he appears with Moses at Christ's Transfiguration and is awaited as a forerunner of the end.

His Story

Elijah (Hebrew Eliyyahu, "my God is the LORD"), a Tishbite from Gilead, arises in the northern kingdom under King Ahab and Queen Jezebel, who had made Baal-worship the state religion. He announces a drought, is fed by ravens and by a widow whose son he raises from death, and on Mount Carmel defeats the prophets of Baal when the LORD's fire consumes his water-drenched sacrifice (1 Kings 18). Fleeing Jezebel's wrath into the wilderness, he meets God not in wind, earthquake, or fire but in "a still small voice" (1 Kings 19.12). He anoints his successor Elisha, and at the end is not buried but taken up "by a whirlwind into heaven" in a chariot of fire, leaving his mantle behind (2 Kings 2.11).

Forerunner and Prophet

Malachi promises that God will "send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD" (Malachi 4.5); Christ identifies this ministry with St. John the Baptist, who came "in the spirit and power of Elijah" (Luke 1.17). Elijah appears beside Moses at the Transfiguration (Matthew 17.3), the Law and the Prophets bearing witness to Christ.[^1]

[^1]: Patristic reading of Elijah as a type of the forerunner, awaited before the great Day of the Lord.